WHO Declares ZikaVirus a Global Emergency
FG tasks military on vaccines against diseases
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the mosquitoborne Zika virus an international public health emergency as the disease linked to thousands of suspected cases of birth defects in Brazil spreads rapidly.
Th is came as the federal government yesterday tasked the Nigerian armed forces to conduct research towards the production of effective vaccines against Lassa fever, Zika virus and other diseases threatening the life of its personnel and the civil populace.
WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan, told journalists yesterday that an international coordinated response was needed to improve detection and speed work on a vaccine and better diagnostics, although curbs on travel or trade were not necessary.
The emergency designation was recommended by a committee of independent experts to the UN agency following criticism of a hesitant response so far.
The move should help fast-track international action and research priorities.
“Members of the committee agreed that the situation meets the conditions for a public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted this advice,” Chan said.
The WHO said last week that the Zika virus was “spreading explosively” and could infect as many as four million people in the Americas. Brazil is due to host the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August.
The WHO was lambasted for reacting too slowly to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa which killed more than 10,000 people, and had promised to do better in future global health crises. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention head, Thomas Frieden, said the declaration “calls the world to action” on Zika.
“The WHO faced heavy criticism for waiting too long to declare the Ebola outbreak a public health emergency and they should be congratulated for being far more proactive this time,” said Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust medical charity.
Derek Gatherer, a lecturer at Lancaster University, said the WHO’s move was “like a declaration of war, in this case on Zika virus”. The WHO’s International Health Regulations emergency committee brings together experts in epidemiology, public health and infectious diseases from the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa.
Brazil has reported nearly 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly, in which infants are born with smaller-than-usual brains.
The Health Ministry has linked the condition to Zika, although the connection is not yet definitive.
Chan said the causal link was “strongly suspected but not yet scientifically proven”.
Brazilian Health Minister, Marcelo Castro, told Reuters that the epidemic was worse than believed because in 80 per cent of the cases the infected people had no symptoms. As the virus spreads from Brazil, other countries in the Americas are also likely to see cases of babies with Zika-linked birth defects, experts believe.
The Pan American Health Organisation said Zika had now spread in 24 nations and territories in the Americas.
In addition, the Zika virus infection was also reported late last year in Cape Verde.
The Zika virus has raised questions worldwide about whether pregnant women should avoid infected countries.
Chan said delaying travel was something pregnant women “can consider,” adding that if they needed to travel they should take personal protective measures by covering up and using mosquito repellant. The clinical symptoms of Zika are usually mild and often similar to dengue, a fever which is transmitted by the same Aedes aegypti mosquito, leading to fears that Zika will spread into all parts of the world where dengue is commonplace.
More than a third of the world’s population lives in areas at risk of dengue infection, in a band stretching through Africa, India, Southeast Asia and Latin America. Zika’s rapid spread through Latin America is put down to the prevalence of Aedes aegypti and a lack of immunity among the population.
Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, Danjuma Sheni, during the opening of the seven-day training session on ‘Disease Outbreak Investigation and Management for the Armed Forces Personnel’ organised by the Health Implementation Programme (HIP) has tasked the Nigerian armed forces to conduct research towards the production of effective vaccine against Lassa fever, Zika virus and other diseases threatening the life of its personnel and the civil populace..
Sheni who was represented by the Head of Medical Services at the ministry, Dr. Oluwatosin Akinlade, said the training was very timely in view of the recent outbreak of the Lassa fever and the rapid spread of Zika virus disease in South America.
“You will all agree with me that this session is very timely in view of the current fight against Lassa fever and associated diseases, including the case of the dreaded Zika virus disease in far away America,” he said.
The permanent secretary also commended the military for their successful efforts through research and other activities aimed at tackling the dreaded diseases.
He said: “It is gratifying to note that over the years, the activities of the programme had focused on other diseases including Tuberculosis, Malaria and Ebola among others with tremendous successes.
“The significant reduction in the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among the armed forces personnel and the conduct of a study on Ebola vaccine are some of the very significant achievements of the Nigerian Ministry of Defence-United States Department of Defence (NMODUSDOD) partnership.
“I wish at this juncture to charge the director-general and his team to keep up the work assiduously looking into other areas as new cases of unfamiliar diseases are ravaging mankind.
“I am pleased to note that in spite of these challenges, new innovations through research are being conducted daily to proffer lasting solutions to these problems,” he added.
Sheni also urged the military authorities to use the training to focus on increasing critical knowledge and operational skills of the armed forces personnel in outbreak management; establishment of effective disease surveillance mechanism in all barracks/basic in synergy with the local, state health authorities; strengthening laboratory capacity to conduct basic diagnostic investigations and establish relationship with key stakeholders within the framework of the Ministry of Health.
In the same vein, the DirectorGeneral of HIP, Brig-Gen. Nurudeen Hussain, said the NMOD-USDOD HIV programme is a military-tomilitary collaboration established in 2005 with the primary aim of curtailing the scourge of HIV/AIDS among troops and their families.
Hussain noted that: “Having recorded significant success in HIV control (judging from its prevalence of 2.5 per cent which is below national average), the programme’s mandate has increased to include diseases of public health and military significance and research.”
He listed the diseases in focus to include malaria, tuberculosis and viral haemorrhagic fever such as Ebola, Lassa fever and Yellow fever.
According to him, “One of the latest researches by NMOD-USDOD Walter Reed Programme-Nigeria is the Ebola vaccine study from April to December, 2015, in which 313,000 volunteers participated.”
Also, he said training on another multi-country Ebola vaccine study was conducted last week in the hi-tech Defence Reference Laboratory and Clinical Research Centre, Abuja, and it will commence in March this year.
“With the emerging and re-emerging diseases in Nigeria (and West Africa) coupled with the troop’s involvement in the regional peace efforts, it is apt to build capacity of armed forces health personnel towards health promotion and disease prevention,” Hussain stated.
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